Do you clean your workshop at the end of the day?

[Blue HeelerParticipant @blueheeler]

Do you clean your workshop at the end of the day so when you go in there next its all in order?

Or are you up to your elbows in tools and stuff and spend a lot of time looking for what your after?

So, really just asking…..how tidy are you in your workshop

I'd say I'm 'fairly' tidy…….most of the time.

[Blue HeelerParticipant @blueheeler]

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember19781]

[This posting has been removed]

[Anonymous]

Posted by Blue Heeler on 28/06/2019 10:19:49:

Do you clean your workshop at the end of the day so when you go in there next its all in order?

Definitely not. At the end of each session cutting tools and measurement equipment get put away. When I've finished a job then the machine tools get cleaned down and if particularly messy the floor will be swept. Every now and then the workbench will be tidied. A couple of times a year the machine tools get a deep clean and adjustment.

Lubrication and coolant level and concentration checks are done as required.

Andrew

[TrevorhParticipant @trevorh]

Only when the machines disappear under the swarf and I can't find any tools on the bench

Then it gets a deep clean that can take hours…….

But its such a good feeling when I keep finding my tools that I thought had gone walk about..HAHA

Trevor

[SaxalbyParticipant @saxalby]

Im withTrevor – wait until tools and turned parts get lost in the swarf

Barry

[Chris BradburyParticipant @chrisbradbury76252]

Yep Trevor and Barry get my vote

Chris

[VicParticipant @vic]

I’m not consistent in this regard. Sometimes I clean up and make sure everything is tidy, sometimes I can’t be bothered! My workshop is combined metal and woodwork. If I’ve been turning wood I generally sweep up afterwards as it makes a real mess.

[JuddyParticipant @juddy]

I don't like walking about on swarf so I normally clean this up as go then if there is any more mess I clean up and put everything away at the end of the day, But I still can never find the tool or item I need at any given time until I stop looking and suddenly its in front of me.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Being untidy myself, I'm strongly of the opinion that tidy chaps need urgent help, they can't cure themselves.

As indulging unhealthy compulsive urges is an affront to level-headed Model Engineers everywhere I propose compulsory workshop inspections. After any well-groomed owners caught in possession of a neat workshop have been sedated with three rolls of Duct Tape, all their tools should be given to proper crusty metal cutters like me…

Slovens arise; this is your chance to get more toys! Comfort a tidy-bloke today by confiscating his kit. He'll thank you for it later.

Dave

[RMAParticipant @rma]

Posted by Blue Heeler on 28/06/2019 10:19:49:

Do you clean your workshop at the end of the day so when you go in there next its all in order?

Or are you up to your elbows in tools and stuff and spend a lot of time looking for what your after

Looking round my workshop, it's pretty apparent that my day's don't end!! I'm always amazed when I see pics of tidy workshops and clean machines on here! How on earth do you do it?

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

I miss the days when i had a team of nurses to scrub floor walls and ceiling after a busy session, disassemble, clean, reassemble and sterilise all the tooling and neatly rack it for easy finding. My OH won't do that in the hobby shed and won't let me have a shed au pair…
.. when it's too messy for me to like it it gets tidied by me. My tolerance level is rising.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

I seem to remember having a bench and a floor in the workshop, haven’t seen either for a while.

Mike

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

I try to clean away most of the swarf at the end of the day and sweep the floor, but I don't spend much time on cleaning up.

Thor

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by pgk pgk on 28/06/2019 13:33:04:

I miss the days when i had a team of nurses to scrub floor walls and ceiling after a busy session…

Some jobs are messier than others. As a patient I prefer not to know what nurses had to clean off the ceiling, or why…

Dave

PS I do really! Gore is fascinating.

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

My garage is just that "a workshop" not a showroom. Otherwise nothing would be built. I do clean swarf regularly from working surfaces of mill and lathe and lubricate.

Paul.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

I am beginning to think I need to change my ways, once I could remember where things were so the uproar was manageable but now I am spending too much time looking for things. My desk at work was piled high but everyone was amazed I could lay my hand straight on a file or drawing. The advent of clear desk hot desking ended that but then stuff just disappeared into online storage which could take some finding if you forgot what it was called. I have a vision of a tidy workshop but it may involve a vicious cull of all those useful treasures, some have not yet found a use after 50 years of storage but you just know the day after it’s gone you will find that job for it.

Mike

[BazParticipant @baz89810]

At the end of the day all tools are put away, machines cleaned down and oiled and floor hoovered so that it is ready for the next work session. I cannot abide working in mess and most probably spend ( waste, according to your opinion) a good half hour cleaning up after every session.

[Ian McVickersParticipant @ianmcvickers56553]

Floor swept and crap hoovered out of the machines at end of each day. Not a total clean each timebut get rid of most of the swarf then spray with wd40 and cover with cloth. Every now and again I go for a proper clean of the machines and floor.

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

I clean up when, looking around the workshop, I'm suddenly overcome with disgust.

But that doesn't happen much in busy periods – I've said often enough that what comes out yer shed is a hundred times more important than what you got in there – and IMO that applies to its tidiness as well as the prestige of the brand names installed.

[RMAParticipant @rma]

I am in Spain and taking a drink break from loading the car ready to drive back tomorrow. Currently it's over 40 in the shade, and it must be well over 50 at the garage door, and I'm melting. Sky news tell me part of my route home is on fire….great, that'll be fun then!

I can't help wishing I was in my cool workshop back in England………..yes, tidying up!!!

Nah, won't get done will it?

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 28/06/2019 13:59:46:

Posted by pgk pgk on 28/06/2019 13:33:04:

I miss the days when i had a team of nurses to scrub floor walls and ceiling after a busy session…

Some jobs are messier than others. As a patient I prefer not to know what nurses had to clean off the ceiling, or why…

Dave

PS I do really! Gore is fascinating.

Gore-fests were rare apart from major trauma victims and lumps the size of footballs. The idea is to keep the vital fluids with the patient. Cleaning was for sterility but if one had had all the compressed air tooling, endscopes and large surgical kits out then staff had a mound of tidying. Floor and wall tiles to the ceilings with epoxy grout made life easier.

[michael howarth 1Participant @michaelhowarth1]

Worrying over this very subject, I asked a retired engineer friend how often he cleaned up his lathe and workshop etc. He replied "When it needs it." Try as I might I could not get him to expand on this answer.

Mick

[MikelkieParticipant @mikelkie]

A busy guy at an engineering works told me "that a clean shop is a sign of a sick mind"

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Not the best time to ask as I am in the middle if a major reorganisation. Got three lathes and a milling machine that I can't use – in fact I can barely see one of the lathes!

Work is winding down for the summer so in a couple of weeks all should be well.

Nick

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